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It forms part of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's new repairs policy which aims to save £2 million every year by asking tenants to carry out basic repairs like unblocking sinks and bleeding radiators on their own.

And when those tenants attempt to carry out the repairs, stuff them up, and cause even more damage as a result, who’s going to repair that?

I speak to Council tenants most days and their attitude to repairs is unbelievable. Whereas, for reasons of cost, homeowners carry out many repairs themselves, tenants attitude is, it is not my house so why should I lift a finger. Tap dripping, call the council and a plumber turns up. Where is the incentive to change?

A friend of mine is a contract plumber for the London Borough of Greenwich. If you think the Old Bill have stories they cold tell about the lives of the underclass then this guy can match if not beat them. A recent job was to a flat high up a tower block in the lovely Woolwich area. 'Radiator not working' - no answer when ringing the bell so phoned the tenant's contact number. Come in she said the door's open. Enters flat - no sign of tenant. "HALLOOO" - 'I'm in the bedroom mate' s'alright, come in. Clambering over the piles of crap he enters the bedroom to find a female Jabba the Hut in bed, stinking cesspit of a room and asks her where the radiator that needs fixing is - here mate she says pointing to one hemmed in by her stinking Tracey Emin type art installation. Heating full on in the flat - nice.He pushed the bed out of the way with her in it, while she munched on crisps, watched Jeremy Kyle and continuously texted. And that's not bad apparently - at least there was no dog shit. All he had to do was bleed the radiator - Just think how much Greenwich council would save if they just stopped supporting people like this?

It has been going on fo years but is only a problem now. I suspect it is their bit for cost cutting. I would guess that this stuff is actually meant to be done by the council and charged in the rent. If that is so and they are charging for it then then need to do it. Its so easy to blame the customer. If it is not then send them a bill. As it doesn't mention them not paying bills at all I suspect that they can't.

We really are transforming into a nation of useless children aren't we?

The last two households I've lived in (populated mostly with city workers), my housemates couldn't figure out how to use the boiler - apparently afraid to touch it - and were absolutely gobsmacked that I figured it out after 5-10 minutes of fiddling.

At my previous houseshare two of my housemates got the landlord to call out an engineer twice to "fix" the apparently "broken" heating. I was present the second time the engineer turned up and was scratching his head trying to figure out what we thought was wrong with the boiler......I shit you not, I walked over and pressed the 'on' button. My housemates thought the heating came on automatically when it got cold.

I'll try not to be prejudiced and assume that council/social-housing are all scumbags, because the vast majority are not.A read of the "tenancy agreement" is interesting, since practically all landlords require notification of damage or breakage.Many insist that a tradesman (jack-of-all-trades) do the job.....damage limitation.Electrical repairs to the house wiring have to be done by a qualified electrician (you can change a socket, but little else....building regs)External decoration is a landlord responsibility.Servicing of gas appliances is a legal requirement, once yearly, and only by someone registered as gas-safe.So leaving out electrical repairs and gas repairs you are left with windows....etc.One association insisted that its tenants took out building insurance...until it was pointed out to them that since the occupants were tenants: They couldn't.All contain the ubiquitous "service charge" for grass cutting etc...even flat dwellers.This is ot a one-way street !!

£10K to produce the DVD. OK, so that's the cost of production of the video. What about the cost of the DVDs. 19,000 DVDs would eat into that £10K budget pretty quick. Are the tenants going to be paying for it?

Yes. After all, they pay the rent.The common assumption is that all council tenants/social-housing tenants are unemployed/unemployable and on benefits, Most are not.Along with another assumption, that rents are low. Rents are near 75% of private rent...many are higher. Don't forget, most social landlords are not councils. New constructs as social housing are within 10% of private tenancy costs. It isn't the peoples fault that we live in a country where even small houses are unaffordable. You need to go to the US, where a 5-bed detached house will cost less than a 3-bed semi does here...

As point out above, a large part of the problem is that we've developed this mindset that electrical, plumbing etc works are very very difficult things that only a qualified priesthood can do. "Don't touch, call a qualified..." is the mantra. Backed up with legal force.

I qualified as an electrician back in the 80s. Worked for years including on some very, very big installations. I don't do that now, so I'm not in the Guild that Labour started a few years ago (Part P). Legally, I can't even change a fucking socket in my kitchen now, without council approval, inspection, etc.

Noted recently on a domestic inspection (private rented).large brick garden shed with extension cable going to it.The plug and socket of the extension [house] was discoloured, the cable at the plug entry was burnt. The shed had a bed inside an electric heater and a small cooker.Heater 2KW, cooker 5KW.28 amps on a 13 amp plug.Not a rare event either.We now move to social rented, where the annual gas inspection is automatic. Back to private rented, where the mandatory gas inspection is sporadic in many cases (in one it had never been done since the heating had been installed, some 7 years)...this, along with electrical "faults" has a great ability to kill people. While sympathising with the previously qualified electrician, who was probably able to do the work, many people literally CAN NOT change a plug (which are mainly moulded-on now anyway)Most people have no idea of a ring circuit, have glossed-over eyes about the current capacity of circuit breakers and even what one is....Electricians are expensive ?So are funerals, especially someone elses that you caused.